MEDFORD, Ore. — In a report you’ll only see on NBC5 News, we shared the story of a Medford mom on Tuesday trying desperately to protect her daughter.
On Wednesday, her story continues:
“No parent should have to continue to beg a school district to help them,” said Trina, a mother who says her daughter was bullied at Lone Pine Elementary.
But that’s just what Trina says she did after her daughter and another girl, whose mom confirms Trina’s story, were bullied for months this year at Medford’s Lone Pine Elementary.
“They were having panic attacks,” she said. “They were making up reasons not to go to school.”
The school tried to take action; it put the girls in different classes at Trina’s request, tried conflict resolution and mediation, and even had them on alternate recess schedules.
Trina says the behavior continued, so she filed a formal complaint with the district in February.
“It had gotten to the point where we stopped asking our children how their day was… and we started asking what new thing happened today because it was every day, it was every single day,” she said.
The district investigation was led by district Chief Academic Officer, Michelle Cummings. It concluded the girl violated school rules prohibiting bullying, harassment, and insubordination.
“The conclusion of their investigation, they found that every student interviewed and every teacher interviewed agreed… that our daughter was the victim of bullying. That this child was a bully,” Trina said.
The girl apologized in writing and wasn’t kicked out of school though district policy would have allowed it.
“Isn’t this what you told me would help solve the problem? This was your answer and I was accommodating?” said Trina.
A safety plan put in place separated the girls during all parts of the day and all areas of the school. It even had the girls stay in separate areas of the playground at all times with “zero exceptions.”
“Our daughters became isolated… and sad,” she said.
However, Trina says the safety plan didn’t keep her daughter safe. Within weeks, she says there was another confrontation.
“She turned around at some point and yelled at our daughters and called them f-ing retards,” said Trina.
Lone Pine Elementary School Principal, Gerry Flock, wrote Trina that he was very sorry it happened and acknowledged that the girl “defiantly refused to comply with the separation agreement.”
He also wrote that the girl won’t be at school for the remaining three days that week.
“This was me asking them what changes, now that we have a report… and nothing changed,” she said.
In the span of a month, a district investigation found the girl violated school rules involving bullying and violated the safety plan the principal put in place to protect Trina’s daughter.
Again, though district policy allowed expulsion, the girl wasn’t kicked out of school.
“I could not understand how they could not force accountability,” said Trina.
NBC5 News reached out to Principal Flock for an interview. Unlike the district office which declined comment, he didn’t respond.
Trina says it was after yet another meeting with the principal on April 1st that she and her family had reached a breaking point.
“I don’t know who couldn’t take this anymore…,” she said. “I don’t know if it was her or it was me.”
The next day on the playground, Trina says a friend of the girl approached her daughter.
“This little girl walked up to my daughter and said, ‘I just want you to know nobody likes you…’ they call you a rat that follows them around,” Trina said. “I sat in my car for an hour with my daughter as she cried and told me that she hated herself… that she didn’t know if she wanted to live anymore. That what had happened had made her hate school, hate the people around her, and hate herself.”
Trina transferred her daughter out of Lone Pine Elementary. Her daughter’s best friend soon followed. Although she says both girls are now much happier, things shouldn’t have ended this way.
“And the bullies got exactly what they wanted. They got exactly what they wanted, they got rid of her… and the bully won,” she said.
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